Kanye West Performs for 80,000 at Bonnaroo

Photo Courtesy of Veooz

Disaster averted and audience rocked! Kanye West was relatively on time to his 10 pm performance last night at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. With a massive crowd of over 80,000 waiting for him, Kanye closed the first day of Bonnaroo with a visually impressive concert that drove the crowd wild. His wife Kim Kardashian was in attendance though she made no stage appearance and was never referenced to by the rapper.

West kicked off the performance wearing the famous mask promoted via his Yeezus album. He then proceeded to perform different cuts and remixes off of that 2013 release. About half an hour in, West tore of the mask and began to speak to his audience. “How many of y’all don’t give a (expletive) about what the press say?” Kanye yelled to the crowd. “They try to make me look crazy. And the people writing that, I don’t see them performing for 90,000.”

West was almost certainly referring to his past appearance at the Bonnaroo Festival. It was six years ago when Kanye West infamously began his Bonnaroo appearance at 4:30 AM after a series of technical difficulties caused by West’s far-reaching demands. The results were an extremely angry crowd and a national PR disaster for the rapper. West would later go on to blame the Bonnaroo organization stating “the festival wouldn’t allow us to do anything until Pearl Jam left the stage. Pearl Jam ended one hour late!” Rumors began to swirl soon after that West deliberately performed late in order to avoid competition from other artists scheduled in the same slot. It’s taken a while, but it seems both parties have put this ideal behind them for the sake of quality live music.

The rest of Bonnaroo is stacked to the brim with A-list performers like Elton John, Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, Wiz Khalifa, and Lionel Ritchie. Elton John is scheduled to close out the festival Sunday night at 9:30 PM. Activities have been organized for the festival including an organized run, yoga, a slip and slide, and various food services from over Fortunately for Basketball fans, the concert’s cinema tent will broadcast live feed of the NBA Finals.